Salt Air Restaurant in Rehoboth Beach, DE when he came across a surprise in an order of clams: a purple pearl! "It was the end of the dish and I felt something hard and crunchy as I was eating, and I looked at what it was, and thought it was something purple - at first, thought it was a bead, or a piece of candy, or one of those button candies that comes on the paper, because it was a bright, lavender - almost purple, and we had not heard of clams producing purple, so didn't know this was a possibility." Overland continued: "But then when we looked at the shell, it had a little indentation on the shell where something was growing and we put it in there and it was a perfect fit!"The pearl is "perfectly round" with a lavender color, and fit perfectly inside the shell.
Overland went on Google to learn how valuable they could be, and saw they could run anywhere from $600-$1,600 based on the size and shape.
Overland plans to get it appraised soon but has no immediate plans to sell it. Natural pearls are organic gems created when a clam pearl secretes a substance to coat a foreign irritant that enters the shell during feeding.
Over time, the secretion can develop into a round-shaped pearl. His two kids are excited about it and consider it a unique souvenir from their trip to the beach.